goings on in my (now our) corner of the world 0001

this is the first of my startup of monthly newsletters for people who only receive updates on my life via email. it’s a good synopsis of recent happenings:

I used to write newsletters. I don’t recall when the last one was, but for a long time, I just dropped off on email communication and regrouped to letters. I’ve definitely been failing at that for a while now, and I’ve gained quite a few new reasons (not the least of which is a greatly increased immediate family size) to start that up again — at least for the highlights.

For anyone that didn’t hear (and hopefully there aren’t too many of those out there, though it’s possible there are), I got married. Don’t feel bad. Nobody was invited. Literally. Nobody. We made announcement postcards, but may not have had everyone’s address, so if you want a cute postcard and didn’t get one, email me back with your address and I’ll make sure to get you one before next year. While my last name hasn’t changed yet (don’t ask, cause I have no good answer for you), I will probably change my email at some time in the near-ish future to chetelatc@gmail.com. Because although it hasn’t changed yet, my new last name will be Chetelat (pronounced Chet-lat, not chet-eh-lat or cheat-eel-et or however else you might try to say it) and I suppose if I’m married, it might be time to phase out calling myself a girl, at least for purposes of email. Oh well. The ills of growing older, even if not growing up.

We live in a super tiny (read: 240 or so square feet) house. I say it’s a house not an efficiency, despite it being set up that way, because it’s free-standing and has a front porch about a third the size of the entire inside. (See the pictures for a better view of our oh-so-humble abode) So while we have one room to share, which is mostly taken up by our awesomely gifted queen size bed (thanks to my mom and dad!) that has great storage underneath, we love the small space and the front porch with enough room for a few chairs and small table for tea.

I shot pictures for a wedding of some dear-and-getting-dearer friends of ours, Benji and Angie in January. I also made an awesomely awful wedding cake with rubber ducky toppers in a bathtub that looked like I gave a 5 year old a jar of frosting and had them finger paint the frosting on, but it was full of love, and was a hit.

We had two kittens, lovingly named Emily and Duke after one of our best friends for a time, but decided that their lack of sufficient mommy training on how to clean their butts made their living in our 240 square feet less than desirable, and also with not very solid plans on how long we’ll live in Tampa and what we’ll do if/whenever we decide to move, getting pets was a poorly thought out (more like not at all thought out) decision, so we took them to the humane society while they were still young enough that they hadn’t use up all their cute where we knew someone would love them and take care of them.

[…]

I am drowning in schoolwork, for the most part. It’s actually what I should be working on at this very moment, but I saw this as more important and pressing. Hopefully, now that I am both 23 and married and do no qualify as a financial “dependent” in the government’s eyes anymore, I will be able to qualify for student aid and complete my 4 year (completed in closer to 6.5) degree at the end of the summer. *whew*

Spare time is unheard of, but we like spending the non-work and non-school time with people at Lake House, our spiritual home group (or whatever you’d wish to call it) that we meet with on Wednesday nights talking about and doing important things, like feeding the food-less, and making friends with the homeless. My term paper this trimester is on “The Banquet,” a group that actually puts on a simple banquet-style meal every Thursday night for the homeless at “The Hub” in Ybor City, FL. It’s a beautiful thing they do, and I expect to meet and talk to a very interesting crowd over the next few weeks as I delve into the project more.

Hope all is well with everyone else. I hope I didn’t shock anyone too much with anything they weren’t already at least marginally aware of. If I did, my apologies, and I hope it’s a joy to you rather than panic-inducing news.